Author: ultrawolvesunderthefullmoon

https://www.instagram.com/wolvesofgray This blog is a refugee and a survivor of the Great Tumblr Inquisition of December 17th, 2018. I am gay artist, who received training at the Rhode Island School of Design, and now, a retired high-end fine art framer living in Maryland, USA. My interests and studies in life run a wide gamut from art to history and from the scientific to the esoteric. I have been building this blog of images and texts for the last eight years. My wish is that my posts pique the interest of viewers and encourage them to experience more.

Thutmose III

Statue of Thutmose III (Birthname: Menkheperre), Karnak Cachette, Luxor Museum, Egypt

This statue of Thutmose III, carved from greywacke, a dark coarse-grained sandstone, was found in the Karnak cachette in 1904. His reign was from 1479 to 1425 BC in which he extended the reach of the Egyptian empire during his foreign military campaigns.

Reblogged with many thanks to http://bandit1a.tumblr.com

Source: grandegyptianmuseum

Calendar: October 19

A Year: Day to Day Men: 19th of October

Vertical Elements

October 19, 1903 was the birthdate of wrestler and actor Tore Johansson, known by his stage name Tor Johnson.

Karl Erik Tore Johansson was born in Brännkyrka, Stockholms län, Sweden. He was a professional wrester in Sweden, billed as the “Swedish Angel”. Johnson was a one-time Midwest Wrestling Association champion. In his persona as the “Swedish Angel”, he fought in a live event in Kansas City, Kansas, on December 3, 1943, winning and holding the title for six days. At that time in history, these major professional events were not televised.

Tor Johnson at his heaviest weighed 440 pounds, or 200 kilograms. He had a full head of brown hair; but he shaved it to appear more imposing and villainous in his wrestling bouts. After moving to California, Johnson started appearing in small parts in films starting in 1934. These roles were usually as a strongman or a weightlifter. Practically all of his roles in his early work as an actor were uncredited; however he made many appearances in some well known films.

Tor Johnson had a small role as the wrestler “Jack the Ripper” in the William Powell and Myrna Loy film “Shadow of the Thin Man” in 1941. He had an uncredited small role as “The Mauler” in the Errol Flynn 1942 boxing movie “Gentleman Jim”. Johnson had another uncredited small role in the Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour comedy “Road to Rio”, in the role of Sandor. In 1949, he appeared in his persona of the “Swedish Angel” in two films: “Alias the Champ” and the classic film “Mighty Joe Young”. The year 1950 saw Johnson appearing as Abou Ben in the comedy “Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion”.

During his career as an actor, Tor Johnson became friends with director Ed Wood, who placed him in a number of his films.  He appeared in Wood’s biggest budget film, the science fiction horror “Bide of the Monster” which finished filming in 1959, but was not released because of financial problems until 1964. His perhaps best known appearance was in Ed Wood’s 1959 now-famous cult classic “Plan 9 From Outer Space”, playing Inspector Daniel Clay in what was dubbed as “the worst movie ever made” by authors Harry and Michael Medved.

In reality, Tor Johnson was a big guy with a big heart, a very learned and eloquent man to those who knew him personally. He had a reputation of being a warm and friendly guy who would even have drinks with his opponents after his wrestling matches. He and his wife Greta would graciously welcome many guests to their home for Swedish-style dinners, along with homemade ice cream. Friends, after his death, would reminisce how Tor Johnson would manage to get his large size into his small foreign car. Tor Johnson died on May 12, 1971, in San Fernando, California, of a heart ailment at the age of sixty-seven.

Hunt Slonem

Hunt Slonem, “Black Finches”, Silkscreen Print on White Wove Paper, 2000, 24 x 36 Inches, Detroit Institute of Art

Hunt Slonem  is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker. He graduated with a degree in Painting and Art History from Tulane Univeersity in New Orleans, Louisiana and studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. He is best known for his Neo-Expressionist paintings of tropical birds, often based on a personal aviary in which he has been keeping from 30 to over 100 live birds of various species.

In 1976, Hunt Slonem received a painting grant from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation in Montreal, Quebec,  and began painting in earnest. His first solo show was held at New York’s Harold Reed Gallery in 1977, followed by a major exhibition at the prestigious Fischbach Gallery on Madison Avenue in New York City.

Calendar: October 18

A Year: Day to Day Men: 18th of October

Music and Literature

October 18, 1906 was the birthdate of American muralist and abstract painter James Brooks.

James Brooks was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, attended the Southern Methodist University and studied at the Dallas Art Institute with Martha Simkins. He moved to New York City in 1927, attending night classes at the Art Students League from 1927 to 1930. Brooks joined the Federal Art Project, a New Deal program to fund the visual arts, in 1936. With the funds from the Art Project, he painted his mural “Flight” around the rotunda of the Marine Air Terminal at La Guardia Airport. This 235 foot long mural was painted over by the Port Authority of New York during the 1950s; it was restored in 1980.

James Brooks, a first generation abstract expressionist painter, was among the first of that genre to use staining as an important technique in his works. In his paintings from the late 1940s, Brooks began to dilute his oil paints in order to stain the mostly raw canvases; this period of his works often combined abstract shapes with calligraphy. Brooks was interested in creating ‘accidents’ with his paints to convey personal meanings.

During the period he participated in the WPA Federal Art Project, James Brooks executed several murals beside his “Flight” at the Marine Terminal. These included a mural at the Queens  Public Library, now unfortunately demolished, and at the Post Office in Little Falls, New Jersey. Brooks was also a teacher, teaching at Columbia University, Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, and was an Artist-in-Residence at the American Academy, in Rome, Italy.

Inspired by his friendships with Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, Brook’s work evolved through an interest in the unconscious as well as experiments with collage. He adopted some of the Surrealist principles in his early works which eventually led him to Abstract Expressionism. Over the decades, Brooks’ work evolved to become more mysterious, utilizing the accidental bleeds of the enamel paint seeping through the canvas weave of his paintings as a basis for his more solid calligraphic marks.

James Brooks’ work can be seen in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.